Harpenden 2
Spalding 1
15.10.05

Saturday saw Harpenden men’s 1st IX fixture against new league rivals Spalding. The recently promoted Harpenden entertained the well travelled Spalding HC on a sunny warm afternoon. Following last week's disappointing loss to Wapping, Harpenden were keen to put lessons learnt at training into practice.

Harpenden began as the stronger and more vocal side with the visitors seeming to struggle to match the high pace set. Early attacks, largely orchestrated by right back Paul Nash exposed the Spalding defence with chances falling to Russell Timms and Ali Hutson. Harpenden failed to take advantage of this early pressure with the hosts having to wait until a short corner to make the breakthrough.

Mark Wakeling injected to Lance Boyd-Clark who deftly stopped the ball for captain Mike Emes to drag flick. The Spalding goalkeeper must have been warned about Mike's prolific drag flick as he dived to block it at the left post. The rebounded ball fell to man of the match Todd Baines who calmly slotted the ball into the far corner of the goal leaving the Spalding goalkeeper floundering.

Harpenden maintained the high tempo of the game but failed to convert it into another goal leaving the score, 1-0 at halftime.

A rousing half time talk saw the Harpenden side keen to increase their lead further and it wasn’t long before Lance Boyd-Clark used his dominant position in the midfield to play a well weighted ball through to Danny Burgess. Danny beat one of the Spalding defenders before flicking the ball at speed passed the Spalding keeper and into the roof of the net.

At 2-0 down Spalding began to play to their full potential, moving the ball quickly around the pitch leaving the Harpenden players to chase the game for the first time. The Harpenden defence battled hard against the Spalding attack for the next fifteen minutes of the game. Finally the Spalding skipper, leading by example, lost his marker and shot past the previously unbeatable David Jones to bring the score to 2-1.

The final minutes of the game saw both teams evenly matched with neither able to make any clear opportunities leaving the score unchanged at 2-1.

Next week sees Harpenden playing away at Witham.

Report by Mark Wakeling

Todd Baines: Man of the Match